\u201cI mean,\u201d she said, \u201cclearly there\u2019s something not quite right here, something\u2019s missing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DI Jenkins sighed and bit down a sharp retort. Of course <\/em>there was something missing. In fact, there were a few things \u2013 eyes, fingers, liver, lungs, kidneys, and, possibly most disturbingly, the victim\u2019s trousers. His dentures had also been removed and were in the middle of a damp stain on the carpet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was just grateful that whoever had done this had stopped the mutilation there. After all, he already had one young constable throwing up in the back garden, and his sergeant was looking a bit queasy too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n The pathologist though, seemed to think that something was wrong beyond the obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGo on then,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat have you got for me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She glanced at the body before speaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ll do a proper autopsy back at the lab, but I’d say that most of this happened post-mortem and that initial cause of death is a garrotting. When did you get the call?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTen thirty-one this morning. Neighbour saw someone breaking in, called us and when we got here, he was like this. Poor old sod has seen so much of life, he didn\u2019t deserve it to be ended prematurely like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAgreed. Still, there\u2019s something though that\u2019s niggling me about this. Something I can\u2019t quite put my finger on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPretty sure he can\u2019t do that either,\u201d Jenkins snorted, then sighed again as the constable, who had appeared at the door staggered off again retching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pathologist offered him a wan smile, and started reviewing her voice notes, eyes darting around the room, trying to dig the anomaly out of the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jenkins turned for the door as the sergeant asked \u201cWhat about his wallet, Sir?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the hall, along with his car keys, so robbery\u2019s not a motive. Get the family liaison to ask if he had any known enemies… delicately, naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSir. One thought – could it just be random? Opportunistic? Accidental after a break in gone wrong and intended to put us off the scent? Speaking of scent, can I open a window, that smell of piss makes me want to heave as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo,\u201d Jenkins, said. \u201cLeave it to the forensics people and… wait, what did you say?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe smell, Sir. It makes me want to…\u201d he tailed off as Jenkins raised his hand to silence him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Striding over to the pathologist, he said: \u201cThe dentures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNew or old ones?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOld. Very old, made of ivory \u2013 they’re on the floor over there in that puddle of what I assume is urine… what?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know who did this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat? Who?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe guys at the station have been calling him The Piano Killer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSurely The Organist would be more appropriate? I don’t see any piano wire round his neck…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGo on, enlighten me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jenkins sighed again. \u201cIt\u2019s because he targets people who have this specific kind of ivory false teeth and then he…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell, removes them and tinkles on them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI mean,\u201d she said, \u201cclearly there\u2019s something not quite right here, something\u2019s missing.\u201d DI Jenkins sighed and bit down a sharp retort. Of course there was something missing. In fact, there were a few things \u2013 eyes, fingers, liver, lungs, kidneys, and, possibly most disturbingly, the victim\u2019s trousers. His dentures had also been removed and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[695,718],"tags":[289,733,95,8,161,20,730,722,731,9,14,732,154,191,11],"class_list":["post-1588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-695","category-april-2023-missing","tag-again","tag-bit","tag-had","tag-he","tag-here","tag-his","tag-jenkins","tag-missing","tag-quite","tag-said","tag-she","tag-sighed","tag-something","tag-there","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-pC","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1589,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions\/1589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}